How long do bike tires last, and when should you replace them?

How many km they last, according to Schwalbe

Schwalbe publishes ranges by family. They are a rough guide and apply to its own tires: another brand or model may land far from them.

Schwalbe warns that the figure depends on pressure, load, surface, temperature and the rider. If you ride road tires from another brand, this table only gives you an idea, and the state of the rubber is what decides. The guide to mechanical load covers how terrain and water change things.

Mountain bike tires: no useful figure

For mountain bike tires, Schwalbe says no useful mileage can be given because riding style weighs too heavily. We read no other maker's figure, so the decision comes from the state of the tire, using the signs further down.

The one measured test we read

Bicycle Rolling Resistance followed one pair of Continental Grand Prix 5000: one bike, one rider, a 28 mm tire at the front and a 32 mm tire at the rear. This is what it measured at 6,000 km.

The rear wore faster: it lost 0.5 mm of tread against 0.2 mm at the front, and 0.50 mm of wear marker against 0.10 mm. That is why its projection is half as long. The comparison is not clean, since the two tires differ in width.

When to replace them: the signs

The first three signs are Schwalbe's. The last one is practical judgement.

• The puncture protection layer or casing threads show through: Schwalbe says the tire has to be replaced.
• The tread has gone thin: replacing sooner may make sense, because puncture protection depends on its thickness.
• Wear indicators: the Pro One has 4, marked T.W.I. on the sidewall. Other models may not have them.
• A deep cut or a bulge in the tread or sidewall: have a shop look at it before you ride on.

If you run tubeless, the sealant has its own timeline, covered in the tubeless sealant guide. To see the tire alongside your other parts, there is the maintenance schedule.

Age and storage

For tires in use, we read no replacement age from any maker. Schwalbe gives none and explains that the small cracks of old age, spread evenly over the sidewall, are normal. If you come across a rule in years, it is worth asking where it comes from.

In storage, Schwalbe talks of up to 5 years without trouble for its own tires, somewhere cool, dry and dark. If they are mounted on a rim, it asks you to keep them inflated or hang the bike, so the sidewalls do not get damaged.

Low pressure wears them out too

Schwalbe says sidewalls often fail before the tread is worn, mostly from riding for long periods on too little pressure, which also wears the tire faster. These fatigue cracks are few and large, high up on the sidewall. It advises checking pressure at least once a month.

For a starting point, use the pressure calculator. It asks for your weight, the bike's weight and the width, and it covers 23 to 50 mm, so mountain bike tires are left out.

An example at 120 km a week

A made-up example: you ride 120 km every week without missing one. All it takes is dividing Schwalbe's ranges by 120.

A standard tire would give you roughly 4 to 10 months, and one from the Marathon family could get close to two years. The spread is wide, so use it to decide when to look at the tire. The sums do not tell you when it has to go.

In Pedalytics

Pedalytics is not out yet: it is listed as «Coming soon». Each ride saves a snapshot of the bike's setup and adds the wear to the parts it had on. For road and gravel it uses 5,000 km as a cautious prompt; for mountain bikes, 3,000 km for XC and 2,000 km for trail and enduro, which are estimates with no maker's data behind them. It warns you at 80 to 90% of the reference and treats the part as due on reaching it.

A tire can start as new, used (with its km) or unknown; if it is unknown, the percentage is a minimum. Pedalytics does not measure wear. It gives an estimate and does not replace looking at the tire or a mechanic.